A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed and followed ADSM :) It's been a blast coming home to my fav fanfic to write. I'm slowly revising and reposting this fic over at AO3, for anyone interested. Also, keep an eye out for updates on my other, lighter Jamione fic, Falling Slowly. Now, back to the story and how James will react to the truth.

Last time...on ADSM:

-James and Hermione finally have a heart-to-heart

-The bond is not broken as they thought.

-Hermione tells him everything.

PART III: HOGWARTS

Chapter 49

Timey Wimey

"...wasn't fast enough and Ron was... splinched," she said.

James blinked and her words came faster in spurts and snippets while his mind rushed to catch up.

"Nothing was left except for my knowledge… Learned which curse they used only last night."

Hermione used words and dates that should not have been in their vocabulary.

1998?

"Harry—gods, James, I don't know what happened to your son."

Son… with Evans?

"...shouldn't have fallen in love with you, James, I'm so sorry."

James nearly laughed at this. At her absolute utter conviction that she had killed her past-future-whatever best friend. Given what they had just been through of late, James supposed he should have felt something more at the idea of erasing a person from existence. Only...who's to say this didn't mean they had a chance, a real chance now?

Hermione didn't notice the twitch of his lips, or the sudden hitch in his breath as she continued.

"...think I'm Grindlewald's granddaughter, but if I'm right, he was my great-grandfather… still a Dumbledore in a way…"

James blinked, gaze focusing in on the way she pulled her lower lip between her teeth.

"Well?"

Her amber eyes often glowed with her magic, he'd noticed. Tonight they appeared a darker shade of whiskey, lidded by deeper shadows.

"James, please say something," she said.

He flinched when she squeezed his hand. Had she been clinging to him this whole time? It had been only seconds ago. It had been minutes, where his Witch took everything James thought he understood about the universe and turned it upside down.

A werewolf howled in the distance, a harsh reminder of where and when they were.

Moony's with the others already. Shit, I missed it.

Hermione tucked her chin into her chest, removing her gaze from him while the wind tossed her curls about her head.

Hermione Granger.

James Potter released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and pulled her hand and her body in turn up to his.

Hermione gasped as he tapped her chin up to meet his gaze.

Pushing aside his fear, he began, "So, you're from the future?"

"Yes?" Her brow furrowed, though her gaze remained solemn and wary.

James nodded. "And you're convinced you've ruined your timeline by altering the past?"

"Yes! Which shouldn't have even been possible if time is a loop..."

More was on the tip of her tongue, he could see. More about the son James was meant to have, about the rules of time travel and the path that led her to him. His Witch was often a stickler for the rules.

"...nothing like my experience during Third Year," she was saying.

"It doesn't matter. Fuck the timeline," James said, cutting her off.

"I—beg your pardon?" Hermione sputtered.

James laughed as he used his free hand to pull the end of her broom closer, bringing her flush against him in the moonlit Quidditch Pitch.

"I mean no offense, love, my word as a Marauder." His smile faded as he continued, "I know it was all real for you. The people you knew and lost...I can't take any of that back. I wish I could fix it, but I can't. Neither of us can."

Hermione's lips parted and he wanted nothing more than to close the distance between them.

At last! A part of him crowed with the need, the impulse to reclaim her. They belonged together. Fuck Voldemort and his threats. James didn't care.

He hadn't realized he'd moved until her hand captured his jaw. Her smooth palm caught on his unshaven skin.

"You believe me," she simply stated.

James nodded and drew in a breath filled with her scent. His long fingers carded through her curls, holding them back from her face. "I'll always believe you. It's you and me, always."

Her long lashes fluttered as he pressed his forehead to hers. "Even if I ask you to do something that might risk our lives?"

James traced the line of her jaw with reverence. "Especially then. What's life without risk, Hermione?"

"Even if I ask you to lie to our friends?" she whispered.

James winced. "I haven't exactly been truthful with everyone of late. Though, I hope you know how far they're already willing to go for you, yeah?"

Her answering smile was sad. "I know. I shouldn't be selfish, but I am, so selfish, James. I don't want to do this without them and I had to tell you, I needed you to know, if I can't tell the others. The fewer who know the whole truth, the more protected they will be before the end."

"I understand," he replied, catching her wavering gaze.

"Then you understand why I can't be with you, James, don't you?" Her voice cracked over his name and he realized they'd been outside in the cold and wind for some time.

James shrugged. "I don't care, remember? I told you I don't care who your great-grandfather was, or what year you were born, or what danger you ask me to face. I love you, Hermione. That's not going to change, even if we can never be together the way I want us to."

Her arms wrapped around his waist and she buried her face in his neck with a low sob. "I'm so sorry, James, for everything."

He laughed. "You keep apologizing for ruining my life and future when I'm convinced you've already saved it. Who's to say by coming here and changing the past you won't help us make a better future?"

She said nothing, only clung to him tighter. It was enough, to share in her truth and her warmth. It was more than he'd ever thought to share with her again. Now that James understood why she'd pulled away from him, he felt like he was truly breathing again after weeks, no, months of endless hell.

"We make the rules now," he vowed to Hermione, to whatever powers that may be listening. They were masters of their own fates, not slaves to the timeline she'd already broken. Maybe that future was ruined. Or maybe they were creating a new reality now.

James looked over the school grounds, the twinkling lights of Hogwarts and the forbidden forest beyond them. He thought of the witch who fell into his arms one perfect Summer day not very long ago and realized nothing had or would change. Not for him. One day, he hoped she felt the same.

Hermione shouldn't have been surprised James took the truth so well. From the moment she arrived in the past, James Potter had not done as she'd expected him to. Why shouldn't he take the news she had erased his son from existence in stride? There was a part of her, a ridiculously hysterical part, that wanted to laugh at his reaction. His sheer, bloody insistence that they could create their own fate.

It wasn't like she hadn't already considered the possibilities. While she wouldn't pretend to understand how she could time travel from a future that no longer existed as she'd known it... there were other probabilities.

After they'd returned the brooms to the locker room and made their way to the kitchens, they took turns postulating theories.

"Another universe? Moony rambled on about those one time."

Hermione laughed. "You would remember something like that."

"Well, he had a good point. Where does everything we vanish end up?"

The House Elves looked amused but helpful as ever by piling plates with late-night snacks for the two teens. Winky, in particular, was ecstatic to "be seeing Master James and Miss Hermione" together.

Hermione tried not to ponder just how much the House Elves paid attention to their personal lives as they reached the Room of Requirement.

James pushed the door open and held it for her to pass through.

"I believe this timeline may have now diverged from the original if the multiverse hypothesis was correct..." Hermione mused.

She came to a halt once they'd fully entered what had once been their shared sanctuary. "James? What happened?"

His spectacles fell over the bridge of his nose and James pushed them back into place with a heavy sigh. "Bloody hell, I thought Evans at least would clean up a bit."

"Lily?" Hermione nearly dropped her plate as she took in the mess that was their room. Throws and blankets had been tossed over nearly every piece of furniture. In fact, there were more pieces of furniture by the bookshelves and fireplace. "James, don't tell me you told them."

Her former boyfriend shrugged and ran a hand through his windswept hair. "Yeah... we might have gone into a bit of a panic when you went missing."

"James!" Hermione hissed.

James sank onto the rug before the fireplace, while keeping a knowing eye on her wand hand. He was one of the few who knew how well she used wandless, nonverbal magic. "What else did you expect when you left without telling anyone?" He took a bite from a scone and shrugged. "Remus tracked your scent here and when we didn't find you, it sort of became headquarters."

"Headquarters for what?" Hermione wouldn't admit to stamping her foot at this, a move too reminiscent of the girl she'd been in that other life.

James' lips quirked up into a crooked smile. "Dumbledore's Army."

Hermione sucked in a sharp breath and sank to her knees beside him. Thankfully, his Quidditch reflexes saved her plate.

After a moment of mortified reflection, she began, "The ones we saved from the attack at Hogsmeade started it... I wanted them to stop but didn't know why it made me uneasy. Now I remember why." She turned to meet his amused gaze. "Harry and I started the Defense Association in my time, as a way to learn what they wouldn't teach us in class. The others took to calling it Dumbledore's Army too."

James laugh startled her out of the sudden rush of memories, drawing her back to the way his gold-flecked green eyes crinkled at the corners. "Bet you never thought they'd name it after you."

Hermione's own laugh sounded brittle and weak. "Definitely not."

They ate together in companionable silence. Since her memories had returned, Hermione had found rare moments of peace. That she was able to find them with this man who reminded her so much of her best friend felt almost sacred then. She let the silence linger, ignoring the urge to fill it or spoil it with nonsense. For once, she could almost ignore everything she'd confessed or that she had been slowly planning in her head.

"I joined the Order of the Phoenix," James said, the first to break the unspoken truce.

She clutched her borrowed robe, James' she suddenly realized and worked to keep her voice calm. "You told them?"

"Sirius." James bowed his head and nodded. "He loves you, you know," he added, almost as an afterthought.

Hermione sighed. "I wanted to tell him the truth," she admitted.

James angled his chin to watch her from the corner of his eye. Gone was his confidence, the burning need she'd recognized earlier. His guard was firmly in place again, even if he was unaware of it. She tried to ignore how that made her ache, in the secret part of her heart that loved him.

She shook her head. "I may tell him eventually, but you know Sirius... he's already done so much to protect me."

"Didn't I tell you? We all made a vow to protect you when we only thought you on the run from Dark Wizards."

Hermione watched his profile carefully a moment more before beginning, "If you've been helping the Order, then you know what's waiting out there. You know the war didn't fully end even in my time."

James clenched his jaw and ground out, "Do you know how to kill him?"

Hermione hesitated, flashes of miserable days and weeks on the run with Harry and Ron, always looking over their shoulders for the next attack...all bled back into her new present.

James shifted to face her fully and took both her cold hands in his. "If you know, Hermione, you can't let things happen like they did the last time. Let me help you end him before more people die."

We're too young, was on the tip of her tongue. How many times had she thought that in the course of her years at Hogwarts, her final year on the run?

This fight shouldn't be ours. Also true. Yet it hadn't stopped You-Know-Who from targetting them, had it? It wouldn't stop him from trying to murder anyone who defied him.

"Okay," Hermione replied.

James smiled.

They were too young and the fight shouldn't have been theirs, but Hermione knew how to defeat him truly. And there was something harder than steel and more powerful than magic in James Potter's eyes, in his aura mingling with hers in their special place. She believed him, believed in them.

Review: If you fancy :) Next chapter will begin the second Interlude!